The Rest of Summer and Back to School

Alternative title- “Wake Me Up When September  October Ends”

(The alternative title of this post doesn’t really have anything to do with this post, but I like it.)

I have been meaning to post on this blog for a while, but I have a good excuse.

I bought an iPhone.

I have been too busy checking Facebook, playing '”Phase 10”, “Where’s My Water?”, “Cut the Rope” and other important things to be on the computer much.  I may not have the voice mail on my new phone set up, but I am always using my iPhone.

So I got some catching up to do, so here I go.

Summer finally showed up sometime in early August

We took the ferry over to Squium one day,

and we went to the Olympic Game Farm.

We fed a lot of different animals (homemade) bread.

We went to my new niece Stephanie’s blessing.  We also thought about moving to South King County, but that would mean selling our house on Whidbey Island and then I would have to change my blog’s title so it’s a no go for now.

On August 10th, Travis had his cast finally removed.  Happy Day!

Travis, Marcus, and I went to the Island County Fair.

We said goodbye to our 14 year old Ford Windstar and bought a new Toyota Sienna (no picture yet, but it is light grey and I love it).

I killed another houseplant.

Nathan turned 16, and had a coed party in our backyard where the lawn didn’t get watered all Summer.

I got a body transplant.

Back to School!  Nathan is in 10th grade, Travis is in 6th grade, and Marcus is in 2nd grade.

We did lots of Scout stuff.

I even did two weekends of Wood Badge training.  I  broke down and bought Scout pants.  I think that will be another post though.

 

Travis started playing the trombone in band.

Nathan did cross country.

Yeah! I am almost caught up!

Summer So Far

 

It always seems like Summer goes too fast and yet so slow for me. 

Travis had to have his arm reset on June 28th.  He took it very well.

By the middle of July his hand was looking gross.

SCOUT CAMPS

After going to Cub Camp for all his life as a Tag-a-long, Marcus finally attended as a Cub Scout.

 

Nathan helped out on the BB gun range and Travis helped me with the Tiger Cubs.

Marcus loved seeing his big brother.

Marcus’ favorite stations were archery,

and BB’s of course.

 

The weekend after Cub Camp, Travis attended 11 year-old Scout Camp.  I don’t have any pictures of it, but he had a great time.

 

The next week Nathan attended Scout Camp.

 

 

 

Every day the older Scouts got to do high adventure things like climb this vertical obstacle course.

 

 

 

The whole family had fun at Scout camps.

Maybe I Will Be Blogging More

I am trying a new blogging program because the one on BlogSpot is painful to use.  Let’s see how it goes!

Summer Bummer

It all started Friday afternoon. We received a call from the boys' school that Travis had fallen off a swing and had probably broken his arm. We took him to the ER as soon as the school nurse stabilized him.

Sure enough, he had broken both his right radius and ulna.

The emergency room went well, they weren't very busy and were very nice to Travis. The doctor put Travis out so he could set his arm. It took him a while to wake up, and he was saying the funniest things. I videoed part of it, but I couldn't get it to load on this post.

Travis spent the weekend icing his arm and taking it easy. He got a lot of people to sign his bandage at church.

Today was 5th Grade graduation. Travis was happy that he was able to make it.

Congratulations Travis!

Right after his graduation, we went to the orthopedist. Hanging out for 1 1/2 hours in the cast room with Travis and Marcus almost sent me over the edge. The doctor said that almost every other boy in the area had decided to brake his arm at the beginning of Summer.



Travis had his heart set on a camouflage cast, but he settled for a green one, and we will add brown and black spots later.



Even though Travis was happy to get his cast, he started bumming about spending 4-6 weeks in it. We cheered him up by letting him burn all his school uniform pants.

That made the Summer Bummer a little bit better.

Hawaii Part 2

Wednesday, May 4th

After spending the day before at the Polynesian Cultural Center, we decided to hit the beach again. Not just any beach, but one of the beaches on Oahu's North Shore. During the winter, the North Shore is famous for its wild waves with surfers.

Before going to the beach, we visited The Dole Pineapple Plantation. We entered the world's largest maze as a family and I lost everyone. I couldn't follow the maze map for anything! The boys loved it.

Marcus before he ran away from me.

After eating pineapple soft-serve ice cream, we drove up to the town of Haleiwa for lunch. Dessert is always better before lunch I think. I had Kalua pork again, I don't remember/care what anyone else ate. My lunch was delish.

We wanted to check out several of the beaches, but parking was hard to find. Bert finally dropped us off at Waimea Bay parked far from the beach (bless his heart!).



We thought that since May is almost June and June is Summer, that the surf would be calm. NOT! Travis and I were out in the water on boogie boards and it was great until we tried to get out of the water. I made it out by dodging the waves, but then I looked back just in time to see Travis be swallowed by a huge wave. I yelled his name, as he crashed onto the beach. It freaked us both out and Travis said his face hit the ground.

Nathan and Bert were the next victims. Bert got slammed and lost his wrist watch. He was done for the day. We then heard the lifeguards announce to everyone to keep their children out out the water.

The north end of the beach had the calmest surf, so we spent the rest of our time there. Though the surf was more than we could handle, it was a beautiful beach.



Just as we decided to leave the beach, the skies opened up and it poured on us. Bert had to hike back to the van (bless his heart again!).


Thursday, May 5th


We started the day with a visit to the Byodo-In Temple on the east side of Oahu. I remember visiting there when I was 11 years old, and wanted to feed the koi again.

The boys loved feeding the birds more than the koi.

They rang the gong for good luck.

It was a gorgeous day.

Our main goal of the day was snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We had heard that the parking lot fills up fast, so we had a back-up plan to hike Diamond Head. We were happy to find a spot to park, so we were good to go!

Bert, Nathan, and Travis LOVED snorkeling.

I have a phobia of swimming with any kind of critters, so I wanted nothing to do with it. Marcus and I enjoyed swimming in the sandy areas.

Buried Treasure

Hanauma Bay was a big hit with the Wagners!